Support Public Radio

You can support public radio through underwriting and we can help you
drive traffic to your place of business by reaching the educated,
affluent and decidedly handsome KMXT listeners. Contact
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
today!

Galley Tables

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Who is in
charge of the Kodiak Island Bed and Breakfast Association depends on whom you
ask. That confusion prompted the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly last week to
put off granting the association any money out of the borough's bed tax for
promotion of B&Bs in Kodiak. Jay Barrett has more.

Last week,
the assembly was considering a grant up to about 16-thousand dollars to the
Kodiak Island Bed and Breakfast Association, which is the balance in the
borough's tourism promotion account. But an internal dispute in the association
caused the assembly to postpone any financial help for them. The problem stems
from a disagreement of who runs the association. On one hand, Robin Haight (hayt)
says she is the president, while others say John Farentino is rightfully the
head of the organization.

Darlene
Turner, who identified herself as the association's treasurer, and is aligned
with Farentino, asked the assembly to hold off on giving them any money until
the group's internal problems are cleared up:

--(B and B
150 sec"As we had talked
in July ... have never been completed.")

Turner said
Haight who was no longer affiliated with the association, and that legal action
has been involved:

--(B and B
326 sec"Robin Haight does
not ... by the duly elected board of directors.")

Haight went
on to suggest that if the assembly did not want to redistribute bed tax revenue
to bed and breakfasts, perhaps the B-and-Bs shouldn't be collecting it.

--(B and B
534 sec"And the fact that
we ... different questions regarding that.")

Marion
Owen, who runs a Kodiak bed and breakfast, but is holding off on joining the
association, told the assembly that she doesn't think that any money should be
given to the group, whoever is in charge of it. She said other associations
around the state that she's talked to do not take bed tax money:

--(B and B
437 sec"They rely on
membership ... for the visiting public.")

The Kodiak
Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, which markets B-and-Bs as well as every
other visitor-related business in the borough, has declined to accept membership
money from either of the competing bed and breakfast association boards since
the split. Director Janet Buckingham said the KICVB is doing the same thing as
the borough assembly, and is taking a wait-and-see position to allow the
B-and-B association to work out their own issues.